Hobart – Summer 2006

If Hobart’s Issue 4 was the magazine’s coming out issue (with stories by Aimee Bender, Ryan Boudinot, Rick Moody, and Stephen Elliot bringing a lot of attention to the young publication), then Issue 6 is the one where it fully reveals its own voice with its sixteen stories full of wit and wonder.

If Hobart’s Issue 4 was the magazine’s coming out issue (with stories by Aimee Bender, Ryan Boudinot, Rick Moody, and Stephen Elliot bringing a lot of attention to the young publication), then Issue 6 is the one where it fully reveals its own voice with its sixteen stories full of wit and wonder. Early on, J. Chris Rock provides the excellent coming-of-age story “Fireworks,” followed immediately by Nick Johnson’s intriguing meta-essay “Lost in the Bush,” about his cousin, an amateur bodybuilder who’s missing and presumed dead. Hobart’s preoccupation with baseball shows up more than once, with essays on the sport by Dennis Dillingham and Doug Hockstra revealing the effects of the sport not just in the instance of a single game but throughout the lifetime of a fan. Other highlights include Catherine Zeidler’s haunting debut “Pregnant” and J. Ryan Stradal’s stimulating “The Augustus McKinnon Story,” a biography of a poet turned furniture mover who gains fame by applying poetic theories to his day job. These stories and essays are filled with equal parts frustrated lovers and confused youths, all of whom arrive at insight with wit and grace, often discarding epiphany for the sudden rush of cathartic action. Cover and interior art was provided by the talented Perry Vasquez, who also contributes the issue’s nostalgic opening essay. Hobart has grown steadily since its first issue three years ago, and if this issue is any indication, there’s no slowdown on the horizon.  Issue 6 is the best issue of Hobart so far, and shouldn’t be missed.
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